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The pics are great. Interesting that the inner surfaces of the wings are blue also as are the landing gear. That's only with the gloss sea blue version I believe. Love the pics of the gun turret. Great for coloring. Are the props traditionally gloss black? If you've got more, keep posting them.

The pics are great. Interesting that the inner surfaces of the wings are blue also as are the landing gear. That's only with the gloss sea blue version I believe. Love the pics of the gun turret. Great for coloring. Are the props traditionally gloss black? If you've got more, keep posting them.

"There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have. Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not there any more." -Ghost of Christmas Present, Scrooge

Awesome pics, tbm! I have a few pictures of that Avenger myself, but they're from a few years ago (2012?), and they're not nearly as detailed as yours.

"There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have. Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not there any more." -Ghost of Christmas Present, Scrooge

I guess I forgot to hit submit last night. As to dark sea blue there was a Navy directive in 1944 spelling that out. This plane was built January 1945 by Eastern as a TBM3E model and delivered to the Navy in June 1945 via San Diego. Made it to Guam in July as part of VC-97 but never made it onto a carrier during the war. It did make it onto the Coral Sea in the mid-50's as an COD.

Now I'll have to take some pictures over the next week hopefully as there are several small details along the fuselage that models don't know/show. Obviously you would be interested. Antenna mounts. Drain tubes out the cowling for oil along with a small exhaust exit. The opening for manually turning the engine over. Tubes out the fuselage for the crew to take a piss. Those are some details that would be useful on a 1/32 scale.

Avenger Engine Build 4

My plastering on the mountain needs at least another day of drying so I did more ABM work (after getting back from the LHS and buying Dark Sea Blue). I went further into the engine. It's a nice model to work in 1/32.

After gluing on the pushrod tube components on the front and rear banks, I needed to paint the valve box/valve cover parts. I could have painted the flat aluminum while the parts were glued to the engine, but felt that it would have been more difficult so I stuck them all to some masking tape. I only wanted to paint the bottom aluminum-colored part because I could paint the black valve cover part.

I could have airbrushed them, but was afraid that the blast would blow them all over the place so I brush painted them.

After fitting and gluing them in place on the engine, I brush-painted the covers semi-gloss black.

This really jazzed up the engine's look. Next up was the intake manifold which was also painted flat aluminum, and then it was time for the first engine PE. Eduard includes two different kinds of sheet metal baffles that sit atop the front and rear cylinder heads.

This part gets folded in a "Z" fold and then is CA'd to the rear heads. I scrap the primer (Tamiya primer) to expose bare metal so I'm not gluing to paint. Luckily, Eduard includes extra parts because I ended up folding two of them backwards and when you try to fold Eduard brass twice they usually break. Here are the first two in place. After taking the picture, I glued on all 7. BTW: I use the Small Shop's Plexiglass PE holding fixture so you can cut the parts in such a way that they don't disappear into the quantum rift.

Tomorrow I will install the front pieces and paint them semi-gloss black before adding the plug wiring.

Avenger Engine Build 5

Plaster was still not dry on the mountain so I spent the day building an R-2600 and moving into other engine bay stuff.

I finished putting all the "sheet metal" PE baffles onto the cylinder heads. I then wrapped that thin piece of PE around the engine tying it to each baffle with thin CA and a sharp toothpick and then painting it all semi-gloss black.

I hold the engine in a Panavise with soft jaws to keep it steady while working on all this cylinder stuff. I painted the induction pipes semi-gloss black while on the sprue since it would have been very difficult to fully paint them when installed. That being said, I did have to touch up the sprue attachment point after they were all installed. I also touched up the flat aluminum at the intake flange at the head for the rear bank.

While I was waiting for the black to dry I started working on the firewall PE. The first thing to do was shave off the molded oil tank brackets which get replaced with the folded PE brackets. I used a large hold-n-fold from the Small Shop to do most of my PE bending. I got this one from them as payment for allowing them to use my Missouri in their advertising. It's a wonderfully designed tool that makes the almost impossible very possible.

These were CA'd to the firewall and then the glued up tank CA's to the bracket. You have to remove the attachment pins on the tank so it woudl nest properly. Eduard included some new straps that would attach the tank to the brackets. These were an example of "even though you can DO a thing, you probably shouldn't". The parts were damaged on the fret and the little tangs that were supposed to attach the straps were so frail that several had already separated before I even attempted to remove the part from the fret.

The strap you see on the right center of the pic shows the tiny metal connection between the tangs and the straps. The other one was toast. So I had to make new straps using left-over fret material. It lacks those tiny eyes but who cares. i certainly don't.

There were several other PE details on the firewall: another brackety kind of thing, an instrument box of some sort and a wiring harness. All of this will be airbrushed interior greena and then the details picked out by hand. Again... I always scrap off the primer to reveal bare metal before CA'ing. Otherwise, the PE WILL FALL OFF when the paint lets go from the metal.

On Monday, the plaster will be dry on the mountain and I will be painting that. After landscaping there will be more drying time and I'll be back on the ABM. The next step will be to install the ignition system.

avenger Engine Build 6

Did some plastering on the mountain, and while it was setting got back to work on the radial. First up was attaching the four parts of the exhaust collector. I had painted it Tamiya Dark Iron off the model, and then touched up the missed spots when one. I attached the parts using solvent glue, then reinforced with thin CA. There are two large pieces and two small ones that tie into the sides of the large output end. While solvent glue started this joint, medium CA filled the gap and made it look like it was welded in place.

Still needed is a little weathering powder to give it some more life.

Next was the ignition ring. I wasn't looking forward to this step for a couple of reasons; the fineness of PE, and my experience with Eduard where the metal breaks too darn easy. It was the second worry that did show its ugly head.

To start, I used some tape to hold the ring in place for attaching the wires. The Eduard parts consist of a short set (#10) for the front banks, and a long set (#5) for the rear. I marked the positions on the ring where these two pieces go.

All 14 went on pretty well. So far so good!

I CA'd the ring in position on the engine. And then the troubles began. The "wires" being PE don't behave like real wire. They tended to become misshapen very quickly, and then three broke off at the base, and I'm not done yet. I had to stop for dinner. I may scrap this entirely and go with small gauge copper conductor. We'll see...

You can see the remants of two of the wires that are not longer attached. I was being very careful, but Eduard is brittle. You can anneal it, but that creates its own problems which I discovered in the building the Yankee Lady. Also, all the yellow paint was peeling off the wires as I was manipulating them into position. All in all, not too happy about the results.

Given that I would think some 18-22 gauge wire, from the hardware store, and then stripping off the insulation to separate the individual wires would work. Sure do bend easy enough. Ignition wires are not yellow on my plane. Also the front bank position for the spark plugs are not where yours show as they seem low. They are a bit higher up top for the front bank and the plugs are more upwards in direction. I have pulled mine enough when shooting oil into the cylinders to manually turn the engine over. However, that engine placement is what you are stuck with. In a real engine the piston would shear right past those plugs in that position.

I questioned that plug position too. The Eduard engines for the B-17, while being 1:48, actually had correctly positioned spark plugs. Can't have everything. I have two remaining wire sets since Eduard included one extra on each side. Ideally, the whole deal should be remade. I'll see how I feel about that.

Given that I would think some 18-22 gauge wire, from the hardware store, and then stripping off the insulation to separate the individual wires would work.

Hardware stores don't seem to have wire that's thin enough (and pliable enough) for my taste (or at least my local hardware store doesn't stock it); on my 1/12th Lamborghini Countach, I went with some old computer wire I had laying around. Almost any old computer peripheral you have laying around (wired mouse, keyboard, etc.) has some really fine gauge wire inside of it; just strip the outer jacket away, and you'll get a lot of pretty fine wires of various colors (I used the red ones for my Countach spark plug wires).

"There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have. Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not there any more." -Ghost of Christmas Present, Scrooge

avenger Engine Build 7 (Part A)

Seven pics today so two posts.

Yesterday's plaster was not dry enough paint so the whole work session went to the ABM. Finished the engine by repairing the errant ignition wires. Two sets were replaced with the additional Eduard parts, but I had to make two more sets from scratch using conductors scavanged from some hook up wire. Actually, I wish I would have done this for all the leads. The 18 AWG hook up wire's conductor diameter was almost a perfect match for the Eduard etchings so you really can't which is which except for the lack of the simulated clip between the two leads.

First step was to clip off the little plastic nubs on the ignitiion harness ring, file a little flat spot, make a prick mark with the pointy end of a divider and then drill with a #80 drill. I did break a couple of the new skinny carbide drills. The wires were CA'd into the holes and then clipped to a similar length of the Eduard PE ones. After getting all the wires in I repainted them black and repainted the copper-colored ring to Tamiya gold since you see engines with brass rings. The arrow points out the copper conductor used for the new wires

The engine needed the propellor governor and the oil sump pressure module. The instructions call for these two parts added much later in the assembly, but I wanted to make sure that they were installed correctly AND painted.

There's a little tiny pulley that attaches to the governor, and of course, it pop out of existence in this dimension from the tweezers. So I machined another one on the Taig Lathe. This was CA'd into place.

After installation I painted these two parts. I also added some rusty brown weathering powders to the exhaust collector to ton down the brown. With that, the radial was complete. In this picture, the engine was not glued to the baffle plate. I also added an alcohol/India Ink wash on the cylindes to kill some of the shine.

Before mounting the firewall, the engine needed to be glued to the baffle (and the motor mount on the other side). I painted the baffle's face Vallejo Dark Sea Blue. Before doing so, I masked the center circle where the engine will glue.

Trial fittings showed interference between the exhaust outlets and the relief notches in the baffle. I used the Dremel with a small mill to remove enough material so the engine sat flat against the baffle. I used solvent cement first and clamp it together. After it set I reinforced this critical joint with thin CA.

avenger Engine Build 7 (Part B)

The engine mounts:

Instructions were ambiguous as to whether they should be glued to the firewall first and then the motor mount or vice versa. I chose incorrectly. I glued all four to the firewall and attempted, unsuccessfully, to glue all eight contact points into the motor mount. There was tension of them, and I get seven pins in and #8 would pop out. I'd get #8 in and 3 and 5 would pop out and so on. As usually happens when things start going south, applying more pressure did not help and eventually two thing happened; pins broke off in the motor mount and parts were coming off the firewall.

After gluing everything back together, I airbrushed the firewall interior green.

Time for some drastic action! I realized that the mount struts should be glue firmly into the engine mount first and then the firewall. To do this I added some 0.032" brass wire and drilled the broken off stubs to receive the brass. I CA'd all four struts into the mount and when set, I solvent cemented and CA'd the firewall to the struts. This time, everything was square and intact. I had to touch up paint several areas, but it's ready for some additional Eduard details. Notice too that I added, the oil drain pipe that will get some more details before disappearing into the depths.

Here's the assembled engine and mounts.

Hopefully, tomorrow the plaster on the mountain will be able to be painted. If not, I'll be doing more ABM work.

And one more thing: My Eduard glazing masks arrived this weekend so that won't hold me up. I've also ordered one of the those ultra-thin razor saws from MicroMark that will help me cut the access panels with very small saw kerfs.